ATohCe.24

Umm I'm pretty sure the admissions department doesn't fret about applicants' GPA because the grad department checks that applicants have at least a 3.0--or was it a 2.5?--before forwarding it to admissions. Mine was 3.08 / 4.00 overall and turned in my app last day. They probably focused on experience, LORs and personal statement more. I felt confident about my LORs and personal statement. My experience come from working at psychiatric hospitals for the last three years and being familiar with the recovery model incorporated in psychiatric programs.

Lol. Some people that got in are probably withholding their decision so they don't get mauled by the rest of us. Anyone get accepted in the Community Mental Health Concentration? I promise I won't bite.

So I got into San Jose State. Cal State East Bay is effectively off my list because SJSU is just closer to my work place. What other place did you apply to and are strongly considering?

annibanani, its great news that you're the first and that Berkeley is getting back to us. What I've noticed with the health and gerontology concentration is that they don't always do the generic email to check your application status. Last year I think someone from the health concentration received a phone call from the person's future adviser congratulating that person. Now annibanani may have selected one concentration but her background might appeal to both concentrations so they're considering annibanani for both (all hypothetical). I remember reading from another post that someone didn't apply for the child welfare stipend but was considered due to that person's background--and Berkeley inquired if that person had interest to interview for it. That should be a really positive sign from Berkeley because they will evaluate an applicant in its entirety and even ask an applicant just to make sure. I believe the rest of us will probably hear back in the next week or two. Lets not deter anyone from sharing their result.

Not my first choice but I'm anxious to hear back from them as well. I think mine was complete the second week of February so you will most likely hear back before I do. Hope you get some good news soon. If you can change the title and add msw in there somewhere it'll come up in msw searches.

So the budget cut does warrant some concern because it could mean 150 spots being limited to 100 -- hypothetically; I don't know exactly how many spots are available each year. If CSU East Bay averaged 300 apps--another hypothetical number--in prior years, a 50% admittance rate falls to 33% given a cut of 50 spots. Now if you've applied to Berkeley (<20%) and San Francisco State (~ 17%), CSU East Bay definitely can't be as competitive as those two. My guess is somewhere between 25-50% for East Bay. However, their applicants probably don't boast the kind of GPA, GRE, or experience the Berkeley or SFSU folks boast. One last note: CSU East Bay does rolling admissions; which means depending on when you submitted your app and wait time, that's probably when you'll hear back. I completed mine in beginning of February and admissions office gave me a wait-time of 4-6 weeks. When did you submit your app?

briefinterviews is right on. I attended an application session for Berkeley and the statistics released by the admissions coordinator is as follows: - avg 700 apps last couple years - 102 spots available last year - Child/Family 32 spots / 200 apps - Mental Health 28 spots / 200 apps - Gerontology 10 spots / 50 apps - Health & Management each had roughly 15-17 spots / 100 apps - 3.58 avg gpa last year (last 60 units from semester or 90 units from quarters) - 550 verbal score avg last year (they don't track or focus on quantitative score) I didn't get specific stats on experience but from previous discussion boards, accepted folks have at least a year of experience in the field.

So I was looking into Berkeley's notification timeline last year and a few students got emails or phone calls on Feb 18 last year. Another batch got wait-listed or accepted around March 4 and some got rejected March 8. I think those that interviewed for the stipend heard last around end of March. Anyone call for notification timeline or statistics from Berkeley this year?

It's doable. At every MSW information session the speaker has brought up the topic of working while enrolled in school. While they discourage working full-time while enrolled full-time, they also say that a handful of students get by that way each year. However, for those select few that do get through the program working full-time, the speaker stressed how little sleep and unbearable the course load + work was for them. If you're talking about part-time work while enrolling full-time, then it shouldn't be impossible.